LONG BLOG

Defeating the middleman and becoming your own avatar in real life was a really cool idea. However, I totally get that technology makes that reality a huge issue. I just don't know how much of this app is made by Nintendo or Google.

Initially I was not even in part of the beta due to being from the US and getting the news 3 hours later than everyone else. Then there was the Android only release, so my iPhone was not a use to me.

So I was really excited when Wednesday I learned that the IOS version was available... But I soon ran into tons of technical issues. Like I was only able to log in once with my Pokémon Trainer account. I thought this was a stress issue... So I waited a day and it got worse. After spending the whole day trying to get the thing to authenticate I went ahead and tried logging in with my Google account...

ZERO ISSUES...

I was welcomed to the same stuff but instead of the app not working, it worked at 100%.

So initially I was really put off that this game is nothing like Pokémon, but more or less an AR ball-throwing simulator. Which is not bad in its own right, but was really upsetting to find out that traditional battles and evolving based on leveling was no longer on experience rather just how many of the same Pokémon you can catch.

But the Good is you are going to have a lot of fun going to new places and finding where all the Pokémon hides.

The really ugly side of this app is that for IOS you cannot use AR mode... Which basically makes the not so random Pokémon findings a random event based on geological location. Which means there are just a TON OF GUESSING and very little actual pay off. Today I went up a mountain behind my house that I figured was a prime spot for Pokémon since it has a very popular hiking path. The app told me that there was tons of amazing Pokémon around me, but there were no visual or auditor clues as to how to get to them.

So basically you are forced to buy an item from the store to attract Pokémon, since there is no way for you to actually find them without AR mode except for randomly bumping into them... which again I had the luck of 0% for the full hour teak I did.

Right now this game is a money scheme on the IOS... I have no better way of saying it.

The semi good news is that yesterday I took my bike out at night and used one of the free sweet scent items to lure Pokémon out of the brush. Which worked really well, as suddenly I got 18 new Pokémon and most of them were not lowered ranked ones. (Four Evans though) Which if the experience of the app was like this the whole time I think it would be amazing.

Without the AR mode feature this game is very crippled and is only going to appeal to people that want to spend lots of money on it. Which I hope that the app gets patched for IOS to have the AR mode, cause without it I will not continue to use the app as it is only a reminder that I would have to buy an android phone or spend lots of money to get Pokémon.